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I love getting pedicures! Probably because when I paint my toes it resembles the work of a child who can’t quite seem to paint inside the lines. I also love chocolate, for reasons we all understand and can probably agree on. So when I saw Luxe Beauty Lounge’s special on Deal by Day for a Chocolate Treat-Mint Pedicure with White Chocolate Paraffin at $29 instead of $75 I couldn’t resist the purchase.

Luxe Beauty Lounge itself is gorgeous. It’s very small and intimate, housing one treatment room and a main room with three pedicure chairs. The décor is girly and fun, with black velvet benches and mountains of pink and purple cushions and blankets. What I love is that it is quiet. They try and make sure there are never more than two strangers getting a pedicure at once.

When I arrived I was pleasantly greeted by the manager and esthetician, Bridget. I was seated and filled out a health history form. As soon as I was done she was ready to get started. I was now seated on the black velvet bench at one of the pedicure stations and was told to use as many cushions as I wanted to make myself comfortable. Once I was good and cozy I placed my feet inside the footbath for a nice, warm, bubbly soak.

One of my biggest worries when trying a new pedicure place has to do with the disinfecting policies. There seem to be no standards in Vancouver. I was very pleased to see that the tools to be used on me came out of a Statim bag (i.e. sterile; clean as a surgical tool), the way it should be.

I had the usual pedicure la-di-da, but what was special about this was the chocolate. It started with a chocolate exfoliating scrub—and we all know how much I love things that exfoliate—so at this point I was pretty much already sold. The scrub smelled deeply of chocolate and was used to gently exfoliate every little nook and cranny of my feet.

After my scrub, she applied a chocolate mud to both my feet and lower legs. As if that wasn’t enough, she got out the chocolate paraffin. She was very careful to make sure the paraffin was cooled to a temperature that was bearable. It was hot, but very comfortable (I’ve had paraffin in the past that I thought was going to burn my feet off). She placed my mud-covered feet in the white chocolate paraffin-filled bags to sit for a few minutes. The smell of chocolate is pretty intense, so eat before you go or you will end up with a grumbly tummy.

My feet were rinsed and then massaged. Bridget finished the pedicure with a perfect polish application. My feet felt smooth and moisturised, and they looked great. I even got to keep my orange wood stick and nail file, as they do not re-use them.

I would consider this to be a perfect pedicure. Both the location and the treatment were great, and, considering I got this at the deal price, it felt like quite a steal. One thing I will say is that, while the chocolate smell is really nice, it certainly lingers. My dogs chased me around the apartment for a while and I had to fight them off from trying to lick my feet. A small price to pay.

Like this:

My skin type? FLAKY!!!! I’m a huge fan of any treatment that involves exfoliating. That being said, I’m hugely nervous when it comes to anything involving my face. Not to mention that microdermabrasion was something I knew very little about. So for me, getting microdermabrasion was a love-freakout relationship. I figured best way to learn about it/try it out was through a Daily Deal.

As mentioned in my previous post, Spas and the Daily Deal, I bought a deal from DealFind for Heavenly Soul that included a Diamond Microdermabrasion. I had arrived right on time for my appointment (I’m usually early, but Kerrisdale is FAR!) I was seated and given some laminated paper work that I actually used a crayon to fill out…Loved this! My assumption is that this was done in an effort to save paper and that my information would then be entered into the computer. There was, however, no health history form at all, which I found odd/scary considering I was getting both a massage and microdermabrasion. To be quite honest, at this point I was a little nervous. But for those of you who read my blog, really, when am I not nervous?

The woman I was seeing, May, is fantastic. The other services have been just great, but I’m not comfortable with things on my face because I have seen first hand what can go wrong when people are not properly trained. So I was asking a million questions and May was trying her best to reassure me that all would be fine. She explained that microdermabrasion was only removing the DEAD skin, that there was NO risk of burning, and, most importantly, that it would NOT hurt.

May cleansed and dried my face, then it was time to get started. And you know what? I didn’t faint! *pause for applause* The machine felt a bit like a combination of a pencil eraser vibrating really fast and one of those suction tubes they use at the dentist. Not going to lie, it’s pretty strange, but I kind of liked it.

May went section-by-section, covering all areas of my face. She paid extra attention to areas such as the creases of my nose, where there were blackheads, and my forehead, where there were flakes. She went over the “crows feet” near my eyes, but was very careful to avoid the delicate skin directly under the eye. When she was done, she actually showed me the dead skin that had been scrapped and sucked off…kind of gross.

The next step was to re-hydrate. I opted to pay a little extra to have a mask done first, but usually a cream or combination of serum and creams are applied. Also, a sunscreen should be applied as you may be more sensitive to sun exposure after treatment.

Post-treatment I felt great and my skin did not look irritated. It had a healthy glow and radiance. I found that makeup went on better and I was far less flaky than usual, or at least my skin was. All in all I was pretty impressed. It was explained to me that to see a reduction in sunspots, pore size or wrinkles I would require about 5 more treatments.

This is something I would do again, but probably only at a deal price. I really liked the results, but not enough to pay full price. And, really, with all the deals out there, who wants to pay full price anymore?